The Problem of the Day

Volume X - Sufi Mysticism

Sufi Mysticism

The Mystical Heart

When one asks, 'What is the heart? Where is the heart?',
the answer usually is that the heart is in the breast. This
is true. There is a nerve center in the breast of man which
is so sensitive to our feelings that it is always regarded
as the heart. When a person feels a great joy, it is in
that center that he feels something lighting up; and through
the lighting up of that center, his whole being seems to
be light. He feels as if he were flying. If depression or
despair has come into his life, this has an effect upon
that center. A man feels his throat choked and his breath
laden, as with a heavy load.

However, the heart is not only that. To understand this,
one should picture a mirror standing before the heart, focused
upon the heart, so that everything and every feeling is
reflected in this mirror, which is in the physical being
of man. Just as man is ignorant of his soul, so he does
not know where his heart is, nor where the center is where
his feelings are reflected. It is a fact known to scientists
that when a child is formed, it begins from the heart. But
a mystic's conception is that the heart, which is the beginning
of form, is also the beginning of the spirit that makes
man an individual. The depth of that spirit is, in reality,
what we call the heart. Through this, we understand that
there is such a thing as a heart, which is the deepest depth
of man's being.

In these days, people attribute less importance to sentiment,
and rely more upon the intellect. The reason for this is
that when they meet two kinds of people, the intellectual
and the sentimental, they find greater balance in an intellectual
man than in one with much sentiment. This is no doubt true;
but the very reason for the lack of balance is that there
is a greater power than the intellect, and this power is
sentiment. The earth is fruitful, but not as powerful as
the water. The intellect is creative, yet not as powerful
as the heart and the sentiment. In reality, the intellectual
man will also prove unbalanced in the end if he has no sentimental
side to his being.

Are there not many people of whom one can say, 'I like
him, love him, admire him, but he closes his heart?' The
one who closes his heart neither loves others completely,
nor allows others to love him fully. Besides, a man who
is only intellectual, in time, becomes skeptical, doubting,
unbelieving, and destructive, since there is no power of
the heart to balance it. The Sufi considers the devotion
of the heart to be the best thing to cultivate for spiritual
realization. Many people may not agree; but it is a fact
that the one who closes his heart to his fellow man closes
his heart to God. Jesus Christ did not say, 'God is the
intellect.' He said, 'God is love', and therefore, if the
peace of God can be found anywhere, it is not in any church
on earth, nor in Heaven above, but in the heart of man.
The place where one is most certain to find God is in the
loving heart of a kind man.

Many people believe that with the help of reason, man
will act according to a certain standard of morals. However,
it is not reason that makes people good; and even if they
seem good or righteous, they are only made so artificially.
The prisoners in jail can all be righteous; but if natural
goodness and righteousness can be found anywhere, it is
in the spring of the heart from which life arises, and every
drop of this spring is a living virtue. This proves that
goodness is not man-made; it is man's very being. If he
lacks goodness, it is not through lack of training, although
training is often most desirable, but because he has not
yet found his true self. Goodness is natural, for a normal
person is necessarily good. No one needs teaching in order
to live a good or righteous life. If love is the torch on
his path, it shows him what fairness means, and the honor
of his word, charity of heart, and righteousness. Do we
not sometimes see a young man who, with all his boisterous
tendencies, suddenly finds a girl whom he begins to love
and who, when he really loves her, begins to show a change
in his life? He becomes gentle, for he must train himself
for her sake. He does without things he was never before
willing to give up. In the same way, where there is love,
forgiveness is not very difficult. A child comes to its
mother, even after having offended a thousand times, and
asks her forgiveness. There is no one else to go to, and
it does not take a moment for the mother's heart to forgive.
Forgiveness was waiting there to manifest itself. One cannot
help being kind when there is feeling. Someone whose feeling
goes out to another person sees when that person needs his
feeling and he strikes a note of sympathy in everyone he
meets, finding the point of contact in every soul because
he has love.

There are people who say, 'But is it not unwise to give
oneself to everyone in unrestrained tenderness, as people
in general are not trustworthy?' But if a person is good
and kind, this goodness ought to become manifest to everyone,
and the doors of the heart should be closed to no one.

Jesus Christ not only told us to love our friends, but
also, he went as far as to say we should love our enemies;
and the Sufi treads the same path. He considers his charity
of heart towards his fellow man to be love for God; and
in showing love to everyone, he feels he is giving his love
to God. Here the Sufi and the yogi differ. The
yogi is not unkind, but he says, 'I love you all, but
I had better keep away from you, for your souls are always
groping in darkness, and my soul is in the light. Your friendship
will harm my soul, so I had better keep away and love you
from afar.' The Sufi says, 'It is a trial, but it should
be tried. I shall take up my everyday duties as they come
along.' Although he knows how unimportant the things of
the world are, and does not overvalue these things, he attends
to his responsibilities towards those who love him, like
him, depend upon him, follow him. He tries to find the best
way of coming to terms with all those who dislike and despise
him. He lives in the world, yet he is not of the world.
In this way, the Sufi considers that the main principle
in the fulfillment of the purpose of his life is to love
man.

Those who love their enemies and yet lack patience are
like a burning lantern with little oil. It cannot keep alight;
and in the end, the flame fades away. The oil in the path
of love is patience; and besides this, it is unselfishness
and self-sacrifice from beginning to end.

Some say, 'I have loved dearly once, but I was disappointed.'
It is as if a man were to say, 'I dug in the earth, but
when the mud came, I was disappointed.' It is true that
mud came; but with patience, he will reach the water one
day. Only patience can endure. Only endurance produces greatness.

Imitation gold can be as beautiful as real gold, the
imitation diamond as bright as a real diamond. The difference
is that the one fails in the test of endurance, and the
other stands up to it. Yet man should not be compared with
objects. Man has something divine in him, and he can prove
this by his endurance on the path of love.

Whom then should one love, and how should one love? Whatever
a person loves, whether duty, human beings, art, friends,
an ideal, or his fellow creatures, he has assuredly opened
the door through which he must pass in order to reach that
love which is God. The beginning of love is an excuse. It
leads to that ideal of love which is God, alone. Some say
that they can love God, but not human beings. But this is
like saying to God, 'I love Thee, but not Thine image.'
Can one hate the human creatures in which God's image is
to be found and yet claim to love God? If one is not tolerant,
not willing to sacrifice, can one then claim the love of
the Lord?

The first lesson is the widening of the heart and the
awakening of the inner feeling of the heart. The sign of
saintliness is not in the power of words, not in the high
position, either spiritual or intellectual, not in magnetism;
the saintly spirit only expresses itself in the love of
all creatures; it is the continuous springing of love from
that divine fountain in the heart of man. When once that
fountain is turned on, it purifies the heart, it makes the
heart transparent to reveal both the outer and the inner
world. The heart becomes the vehicle for the soul to see
all that is within and without; and then a man not only
communicates with another person, but also with God.